


we all got a second act inside of us

by keep_swinging, rainstorm97



Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV)
Genre: Also Honestly Luke is Just Pining for Julie and Too Stubborn To Say Anything, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Canon Continuation, F/M, Flirting, Fluff and Angst, Friendship, Hurt Luke, Hurt/Comfort, Luke is Not Having the Time of His Life Right Now, Post-Canon, Romance, Takes Place Directly After the End of the Final Episode, The Boys Stay Solid-ish
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-25
Updated: 2020-09-25
Packaged: 2021-03-07 19:55:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,879
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26643337
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/keep_swinging/pseuds/keep_swinging, https://archiveofourown.org/users/rainstorm97/pseuds/rainstorm97
Summary: Caleb laughs, braying and obnoxious. There’s a different kind of gleam in his eye when he looks down at Luke again, the audience growing restless downstairs with no band to please them. “You’re weaker than you realize, Luke,” he suggests, lifting a hand up to smooth back his hair. “And now you’re just paying the price.”//Caleb's curse doesn't break for Luke.
Relationships: Alex & Julie Molina & Luke Patterson & Reggie, Julie Molina/Luke Patterson
Comments: 34
Kudos: 434





	we all got a second act inside of us

**Author's Note:**

> Hi everyone!  
> This is my first time writing for Julie and the Phantoms, and it's totally not because I had a friend who said "watch this show I'm obsessed" and then got me obsessed with it, lol. Tumblr also didn't help considering jatp gifsets were all my feed was - and has been - since this show came out.  
> So now here I am, bringing some angst to a new fandom, because that's my jam. 
> 
> That same friend who got me hooked on this show also helped me write this, so huge, huge shout-out to her for helping me crank out the angst and points to us because the last time we did something like this it ended up being, like, 12k, so 7k? That's fine we did great we totally didn't let it spiral, or anything... 
> 
> Anyways if you guys enjoy this, comments and kudos would absolutely make our night! :)

It's late when they run out of things to talk about, Julie slumped beside Luke on the couch, Reggie stretched out on the floor, Alex lounging on the other end of the couch, his feet resting in his bandmate's lap.

"I'm beat," Reggie eventually says, looking over at the couch. He smiles softly at the sight of Julie so close to Luke, their legs brushing, her hands just out of reach from his.

"I think we're all beat," Alex chimes in lazily from his end of the couch, readjusting, his feet pushing against Luke. He shoves his feet off him, the drummer shooting him a look of pure betrayal before stretching and sitting up, struggling to hold in a yawn.

Reggie might be oblivious, but he's not so oblivious that he can't see how happy Julie and Luke look, sitting on the couch together, actually able to feel each other's skin and hug as much as they want, so he decides that they need some time alone as he meets Alex's eye and gestures his head towards the garage door. His friend gets the hint as soon as Reggie nods his head toward the two teens on the couch, Alex smiling too once he realizes how comfortable they look.

He exhales loudly as he goes to stand up, Reggie following behind him. "Reg and I are going to go and see if Ray has any worthy midnight snacks. You two want anything?"

"I think we're good," Luke responds, before mouthing _thank you_ to his friends — his family — and as soon as both of them are gone, Julie tilts her head up toward his.

"Did they just do that because they thought we needed some time alone?" she questions knowingly, a smile tugging at her lips. Luke shakes his head, but he's trying not to smile himself.

"I don't know what you're talking about." He deflects, and she rolls her eyes and socks him playfully in the arm, which causes him to chuckle and pull back. "Hey, just 'cause you can actually punch me now doesn't mean that you get to do it."

She laughs, leaning her head back against the musty cushion.

"I don't think you're in any position to negotiate."

He scoffs, shaking his head, but he can't stop smiling. He can't help it, she makes him smile, makes every part of him feel more alive than he's felt in twenty-five years. He can't get enough.

He takes in their positions then, as she closes her eyes and burrows herself deeper into the couch, their legs are still brushing, their shoulders touching, unruly curls sticking to his shirt from how close they're sitting. A part of him wants to wrap his arm around her and tug her even closer, but he refrains, because _boundaries_ , and he respects boundaries. What kind of ghost would he be if he didn't even do that?

"Luke?"

"Hmm?"

"Are you staring at me?"

He sputters, panics even, for something to say. "Uh, um, no, I'm not — I would never, I mean we already talked boundaries and privacy and I would never uh—"

She opens one eye so that she can see his reaction, and then bursts out laughing, wrapping a hand around her stomach, the whole nine yards. He would feel offended, but he's too busy getting lost in the sound of her laughter, in the way her nose scrunches and her cheeks pull. She looks so _happy_ , and it makes his heart beat faster and slow down all at once.

When she's finally able to catch her breath, she looks back to him and pushes her shoulder into his. "I was just kidding," she says, her voice quieter now.

"Ha, ha," he replies dryly, and she doesn't laugh, but he catches the curve of her lips as she smiles.

They lapse into a comfortable silence, save for the garage around them humming with electricity, and the _plop_ of water from the sink in the bathroom that constantly drips. Luke waits until he feels like he might explode from everything he wants to say, because tonight might be one of the craziest things he's ever experienced, but not saying what's on his mind when it comes to Julie is much harder to keep in.

He's never been one to get to the point quite often either.

"Has that sink always leaked?"

"I thought you weren't going to show up."

They speak at the same time, startling one another. Luke chuckles uneasily, twisting his hands over and under in his lap. Sometimes he really wished that he could open an important moment without a joke.

"That sink has always leaked," Julie supplies as he fumbles for an answer to her own question, her eyes finding a particularly interesting spot in the rug to stare at. His heart burns when he thinks back to Caleb and the club — the same club he was almost trapped in for all eternity.

If it wasn't for Julie…

He sighs, the sound echoing through the empty room. "I thought that was it for us. I thought I'd never get to see you again, and that we'd be stuck in that ballroom for all eternity." His hands keep repeating the motions, over and over again. Up and down, up and down, up and —

When Julie reaches out and closes her hand around both of his, he thinks his heart might break out of his chest, it's beating so fast. Which was funny to think in the first place, because did ghosts even have hearts in the first place? Were ghosts supposed to have hearts at all? Or was that just another anomaly to add to the list of things he was still figuring out?

"I wouldn't have let that happen," she says, like it's a promise, and it's then that he looks over at her, his eyes meeting hers.

He sees so much hiding there, decides that her eyes are the most beautiful thing he's ever seen, and he knows he would be content spending the rest of his afterlife trying to figure it all out. "You brought me back," he whispers, like it's their secret, and she smiles, hiding her blush.

"The band brought you back," she corrects, but he shakes his head and adjusts his hands so that he can squeeze hers.

"The band helped, but it was you that got through to me. Your voice."

"Luke," she tries, but he's interrupting her before she can get another word out.

"If it wasn't for you Julie, we'd be...gone. Poof."

He knows it's wrong to throw humor in such a serious moment, but he can't help it, and the smile he coaxes from her is worth it. "Poof, huh?"

He grins, "Poof."

They're still holding hands as silence settles around them once again, but this time it doesn't last long. Maybe it's how close they are to each other, or the fact that they're both exhausted and this is the most intimate moment they've had the entire time they've known each other, but either way, Luke finds Julie squeezing his hands tight enough to hurt.

"When you flickered, I just—"

She takes a shaky breath, words failing her. Luke moves even closer to her, whispering reassurances as he drops her hands so that he can lift a hand to her cheek. She freezes as his fingers touch her skin, goosebumps prickling across her arms. Her breath is warm from where it fans across his cheeks, and he feels his heart break at the hopeless look that's resting in her eyes. They stay like that, lost in time, for a few moments, before Luke pulls his hand away and takes her hand instead, intertwining their fingers.

"I'm here, Julie. I'm not leaving you." He whispers, his voice steady. There's a tug in his chest as he says it, a fire that shoots through his chest out to his arms, burning more than it should, but he pushes it aside, his focus solely on the girl in front of him.

She's the one to pull him into a hug a few seconds later, her arms wrapping around his neck as she draws him close, his arms falling around her waist. They don't speak, their actions louder than any words could be, and he waits until she's the one to pull away, because if it was up to him, he'd never let go.

She moves closer to him, her head resting against his shoulder, and he takes the opportunity to sling an arm around her, even going as far as pressing a kiss to her forehead.

It takes little time for the exhaustion they're both feeling to catch up to them, and before long they're both asleep, holding onto each other like they'll never be able to feel each other again. When Alex and Reggie return a little while later, they find them like that, snuggled up on the couch, Julie's fingers loosely clutching the front of Luke's shirt, his arm still resting around her shoulders.

Reggie looks to Alex from where they stand in the middle of the garage, smiling wryly. "Do you think Ray would mind us stealing the couch for a night?"

Alex pretends to mull the thought over.

"Nope, I think he'd be fine with it. Let's go."

* * *

They're practicing in the garage the next day when it happens, a sharp stab of pain in the middle of Luke's chest as he starts his guitar solo. He jerks in shock, his body tensing, which makes the pain worse, and groans, his fingers sliding off the chords as the rest of the instruments around him come to a sudden halt.

Julie's the first to reach him, her hand closing around his arm.

"Luke? Are you okay?"

He nods his head, but he's too weak to shake her off, not that he really wants to, considering he already feels better from her touch in itself. That's another question he wonders about — are her 'healing powers' just something waiting to be debunked in ghost logic, or actually something more?

The thought is wiped from his mind as another jolt cracks through him, sending him to his knees as the top of his guitar scrapes against the ground, Julie following him down. "Luke," she says again, her face inches away from his, her hand sliding down to grip at his forearm. "What's wrong?"

He shakes his head, but he feels like he can't move, can't breathe, can't do anything other than writhe on the ground as his bandmates hover around him, feeling more or less helpless. He bites back a grunt of discomfort as the same pain turns to fire, rushing out from his chest and into his arms before stopping at his wrists and settling, and a part of him flares with panic as soon as he's able to breathe again.

Julie's quiet beside him as he gasps for air, propping himself up on his knees before tearing his guitar from his shoulder, passing it off to whoever's hands that reach for it. He feels hands at his back; Julie's hand slips down to grab his. Her palm is warm, anchoring him as he attempts to steady his breathing. In and out, in and out, in and out —

"Are you alright?"

He blinks, and her eyes are there, boring into his, worried for him, there for him, and a part of him wants to laugh because God, she looks so beautiful, and it's the only coherent thing he can think of for a minute. "Luke?" she whispers in concern, and he lurches, stuttering.

"Uh, yeah. Yeah, I'm...I'm fine." His voice is hoarse, and his tongue feels like sandpaper in his mouth. The heart he shouldn't have is beating fast, too fast, and he tears his hand from Julie's so he can reach up, placing it over his chest.

"Dude," Reggie starts, reaching for his shoulder, but Alex pulls him back to stop him.

Luke shakes his head, exhaling sharply.

"I'm fine, promise," he tells her, meeting her eyes, though she looks like she doesn't believe him one bit. In an attempt to prove it he reaches out and grabs her hand, intertwining her fingers the same way he had the night before on the couch, exhaustion coating their words and clouding their minds.

He wants her to know he means it, means every single word he's said, because she means just that much to him, exhausted or otherwise. "Luke," she murmurs, squeezing his hand in hers, but before she can say any more he's smiling at her and climbing back onto his feet, looking over at Alex and Reggie.

"What's with all the sad faces, guys?"

The boys in question share a knowing look before turning back to Luke. "Well dude, you kinda looked like you were down for good for a second there," Reggie blurts. Alex nods his agreement, and Julie sticks close to Luke, her hand brushing against his as he rolls his eyes and grabs his guitar from Reggie.

"Nah, guys, I'm fine. Just some aftershocks from Caleb's stupid party trick. But really, I'm okay." He flashes everyone his most winning smile, and he knows none of them believe him either, but they don't ask if he's okay again, instead returning to their places, leaving just Julie, who tugs at his hand to catch his attention.

He smiles at her too, and hopes it looks honest.

"Come on," he says to her, softly, pulling back over to the piano.

She begrudgingly takes a seat and his smile grows wider, and he even goes as far as to lean in and leave another kiss on her forehead — same as he had done the night before. Except this time his heart is absolutely racing, and he thinks it just might beat out of his chest as he pulls back, smiles at her one last time, and then strikes a few notes on his guitar.

The song kicks off in perfect harmony and he feels alive as he sings, like he wasn't just on the ground unable to move or breathe or speak minutes before. He can still feel it every time he belts a note, a pain that remains somewhere in his chest, that pulls and tugs and whispers _you're not free_.

He looks at Julie, at a girl who shines brighter than any star he could possibly see, and knows that yes, she did free him, and this is nothing but the aftermath from the whole thing in itself. They should've never gone to that club, never tried for revenge, and this was the price for trying to toy with destiny. Their destiny wasn't to sabotage, it was to create.

To create with Julie and the people he calls family.

One thought lingers as he sings and jumps around Reggie, presses his back up against Julie's, rocks around Alex as he slams his sticks against the drums. The feeling of fire had burned him all the way through, from his chest to his arms, but had stopped as soon as it had hit the spot where Caleb's mark had been.

* * *

"Whatcha making?" he chimes as he appears in front of Julie in the kitchen.

She gasps and drops the milk, but he easily catches it before it hits the ground, giving her an apologetic smile as he hands it back over to her. "I thought I told you to stop doing that," she scolds half-heartedly as she places the milk on the counter, crossing her arms and turning around to face him.

"You did," he replies with a shrug, "but I enjoy the surprise."

"The surprise of what, possibly giving me a heart attack?"

He grins, shaking his head, "Don't joke about dying, Jules. It's not as fun as the movies make it out to be." She stays quiet, and her gaze is thoughtful as she looks at him, fumbling with her fingers while she gathers the courage to speak.

"Do you remember dying?"

The question catches him off-guard as he sighs, pushing himself off the island so he can join Julie at the other counter. Their arms brush together as he leans his back against it, mimicking her position.

It's been a few days since they lived — pun intended — and he still wasn't over the fact that he could actually _feel_ Julie, that all the band could. She truly was their tether, and he couldn't get enough of her.

He chuckles humorlessly a moment later, thinking back to the moment after those street dogs. "Yeah. I remember." He says, his voice low. "We um, we ate, and then everything just...went wrong."

He pauses, mulling over what exactly he wants to tell her, and what exactly he wants to keep secret, because she doesn't need to carry all that he has been carrying, and she already found out about his parents...he didn't want to add anything else to that pile.

"I don't know if the guys remember as much as I do but the ambulance, it was so, so _loud_. They stuck needles in me, lifted me, told me to breathe, over and over. I couldn't find my breath. I couldn't really find anything."

He shudders at the memories, at the chill in the air he can still feel and the muted voices he can still hear. "I don't think I made it to the hospital," he says, looking down at his converse. "I don't think I really made it anywhere."

"You made it here," Julie whispers, as he lifts his head to look back over at her.

His lips pull, "Yeah...yeah I guess I did."

He goes to laugh, but it gets caught in his throat, choking him, flames branching out from the middle of his chest. He coughs, groans, clutches tighter to the side of the counter he's already holding, and his hearing goes muffled as Julie cups his face in both her hands, trying desperately to bring him back to her.

It doesn't work like it should, and the pain doesn't cease, refuses to, no matter what he does, and then all at once, it's gone, and he can hear.

"Hey, hey, hey come back to me," Julie's saying, over and over, and when his pained eyes meet hers, she immediately pulls him into a tight hug. He winces, and she lets go of him, murmuring her sorrys.

"It's okay, just...hurts." He mumbles, even going as far as looking at his arm and making sure there's no stamp there. She catches him looking, and reaches for his arm, closing her fingers around the same wrist he can't bring himself to stop staring at.

"What's going on, Luke?"

He immediately shakes his head, but his eyes are still stuck looking down at his arm, and it takes her cupping his cheeks to remind him where he's at and who he's with. His mind is still thrumming with thoughts about Caleb, and how this indescribable pain has to be from the same stamp that doesn't mark him anymore.

Maybe he wasn't as free as he thought he was.

"I thought the curse was gone," she continues, and his heart seizes painfully at the idea of her knowing and worrying. "Why are you still having pains? This hasn't happened to Alex or Reggie at all, Luke."

"I know. I know," he whispers, reaching up and drawing her hands away from his face, intertwining their fingers in between them.

(It's turning into a habit, lacing their fingers tougher, and he knows he shouldn't let it, but he's starting to get worried about the future now, if there's a chance he'll cease to exist by tomorrow because of these damn shocks that only seem to happen when Julie's around.)

"It's nothing, Jules, I swear—"

"Luke, it's obviously not nothing. This has happened to you twice. The curse is broken. It shouldn't be happening at all."

"Jules," he mumbles, smiling at her as reassuringly as he can muster, "don't worry. The curse was lifted, I can feel that it's not with me anymore, and I'm perfectly fine. Everything's fine."

Julie looks conflicted, her eyes flickering between his face and their hands. She pulls one hand back so that she can trace the rings he always has, the metal cold against her fingers. He's never cold, whenever they touch, surprisingly, but his rings are from where they sit, exactly where they're supposed to be.

Exactly where he's supposed to be.

"I'm just scared that I'm going to lose you," she confesses, her voice quiet against the rest of the room, against the creaking of the house. Luke smiles at her before pulling her close, tucking his chin on top of her head and wrapping his arms around her tight.

"You're never gonna lose me, Jules," he murmurs, and he hugs her for a long while after.

(He's never been a good liar.)

* * *

It gets worse.

As the days drag on, so does the pain, always like a fire igniting, always arcing through his body and running down both his arms until he can't feel anything but the burn.

It's been mostly the same for a while now, nothing unexpected, and then that changes during their band practice Tuesday evening. It's chilly out, but he thinks he gave his favorite jacket to Julie, so he settles with another sleeveless shirt as he pulls it over his head before he grabs his guitar off the rack. He catches Julie watching him out of the corner of his eye and almost grins.

"You have a bathroom," she points out. She's waiting by Alex, leaning against the wall.

"Well, yeah, but there's no fun in that now is there?"

She rolls her eyes, but her cheeks are slowly turning pink. "Why do you even need to get changed in the first place?" she counters instead, and he chuckles, making his way over.

"In case I get sweaty while I play," he says with a smirk this time, directed right at her.

She groans, "Do ghosts even get sweaty?"

"Hasn't happened yet," She narrows her eyes and he shrugs, striking a chord to check that his guitar's in tune. "Don't knock ghost logic, Jules,"

"You totally just did that because you know I—"

"Alright you two," Alex interrupts from behind them, already smiling widely and twirling his drumsticks around when the two of them turn to look at him. "The endless flirting is killing me."

"We aren't—"

"We're already dead, can it even kill us twice?" Reggie cuts in, from across the room, slinging his guitar over his shoulder. Alex laughs, and Julie and Luke simply share a look with each other.

"Come on," Luke says, walking over to the mic with a happy grin, "let's start rehearsal."

Rehearsal kicks off without a hitch. Julie and Luke keep walking over to each other and little more than necessary, but it's nothing new to Alex or Reggie — who are mostly used to it by now and find it more sweet than anything else — and it's towards the end of the song when Luke's heart jerks and the pain goes through his left arm this time, seizing his fingers up, and drawing out the chord longer than it needs to be.

He can move his right hand still, so he riffs a little, trying to cover up the fact that his arm is on _fire_ , but Julie's looking at him with a knit to her eyebrows, and even Alex and Reggie are confused. After what feels like forever, he can feel his fingers again and quickly gets on with the rest of the song.

Julie makes her way over to him, sharing his microphone so that she can give him a look, but he brushes her off, smiling wide and nodding her on as he knocks her in the shoulder. She doesn't look convinced but listens anyway, moving back to her own spot.

She belts out her final note, and Luke can't help but smile at the sound.

* * *

His chest hurts after every stroke of the pen, after every crossed out word, every scribble of lyric on notebook paper. Julie's next to him from where they sit together on the piano bench, their arms brushing everytime she goes to write something new down. Reggie's plucking some notes on his guitar from the couch, talking quietly to Alex next to him, both of them bickering when they don't agree (Julie and him only had to break them up twice now) and besides the tightness in his chest that doesn't seem to ever cease, things are going alright.

"How about this?" Julie asks him, sliding the notebook back over to him. "Do you think that sounds right together?"

He looks down, taking in the words one at a time before putting them all together, testing them out. He sings it out loud a moment later and she joins in, and they're both smiling at each other by the end. Their faces are close, so close that all he would have to do is just move forward and —

"That was, uh," Julie starts in a whisper, tucking a loose strand of curly hair behind her ear.

"Perfect," he finishes.

Her eyes flicker down to his lips and then back up to his eyes, and he feels like this is it, this could be the moment he's been waiting for, and Julie's so pretty in the afternoon sunlight that leaks in through the blinds and his nonexistent heart is pounding —

The jolt is paralyzing.

Instead of just seizing his fingers, it stops his entire body, freezes him still, and he can't breathe, can't speak, can't move. It burns him, inside and out, he swears it does, it has to, because how else could it _feel like this_ and not leave a mark?

Just as fast as it happens, it's gone, and he's struggling to catch his breath, but he can't let Julie know _he_ _can't breathe_ , so instead he moves away from her and runs a shaking hand through his messy hair. "Luke?" she questions, but he's already shaking his head and smiling, but his smile is strained and his eyes are clouded.

"I just spaced out there for a second," he swears, pushing the notebook back over towards her, his smile crooked. "No worries, Jules, I promise." She gives him a worried look but he looks back down toward the book, pointing to the next line. "So I have some ideas for this…"

If she keeps a close eye on him the rest of the night, he pretends not to notice.

* * *

"I can't believe we can eat now," Luke says as he pulls a pack of popcorn from the cabinet, ripping the plastic off.

"I could literally eat forever," Reggie declares happily as he pours a bag of chips into a large bowl. Alex is busy scouring the fridge for something to drink, torn between sodas. Luke holds the popcorn up and Julie snags it from him, tossing it in the microwave and hitting a few buttons.

"Hey!"

She looks over her shoulder, giggling. "Too slow, Patterson."

"Oh really?"

He dives for her as the popcorn slowly begins to pop, his arms wrapping around her torso from behind. He lifts her up and spins her around, holding her tightly as he presses his lips to the side of her neck, blowing raspberries. "Luke, stop it, get off!" she says through her laughter, attempting to slip out of his arms. He just holds her tighter in response, smiling against her skin.

"Do you take it back?" he asks her, his fingers hot on the skin of her stomach.

"Yes, yes! I take it back!"

"There we go," he sings, releasing her.

She pokes him in the arm before opening the microwave and grabbing the bag of popcorn by the corner. Steam wafts from the middle, and the kitchen smells like spicy Doritos and movie-theater popcorn.

"You're such a child," she scolds, dumping the popcorn into a separate bowl.

"Best child around," he says as he grabs the bowl from her and throws a piece of popcorn in his mouth, chewing noisily.

He follows the three of them out of the kitchen, movie night awaiting them in the living room — the boys had _a lot_ to catch up on — and he's reaching for another kernel when the jolt stops him short. It feels like a shock to his heart this time, echoing through him and causing enough pain to immediately cause his stomach to churn, bile crawling up his throat. But he can't breathe, he can't breathe, and he doesn't even hear the bowl shatter when he flickers, ending up on the ground by the time he blinks.

"Luke?"

It's Julie who calls for him, sounding absolutely terrified as she makes her way over, and her hand goes straight through him when she tries to grab for him. He's so lost in his own head, in his own pain, that he doesn't even realize the look in her eyes, or the shock that radiates off of Reggie and Alex as their hands phase right through him too when they reach out.

He becomes solid again a moment after, and this time both the boys grab either shoulder and Julie is latching to his hand. "Luke," she breathes, and he gasps like he hasn't breathed in years, "you just flickered."

"I-I'm fine," he gasps, attempting to shove his brothers off, but too weak to do so. The pain's fading, slowly, but it still leaves him breathless, torn between two separate worlds. He doesn't know which one is true.

"Dude," Reggie whispers, "we thought you were going to be yanked out of existence—"

"Or pulled back to Caleb's club." Alex adds, sounding just as worried.

"What's going on?" Julie asks him, pleading with him, but he just shakes his head over and over. When he looks down and sees the shards of glass coating the floor, he wonders why he didn't break too.

* * *

Caleb's club is just as loud as it was the night they were tricked, with party girls laughing and older men paying. Luke maneuvers through the half-living crowd easily enough, and finds his way upstairs, where the chandeliers are eye level and the stage looks extravagant.

There's champagne that bubbles and sparkles, entrees that look like they belong in magazines, and so many people dressed to impress that it's overwhelming at first as he makes his way through, phasing through more people than he would have liked.

His mind wanders back to Julie as he searches for Caleb, and his heart aches at how little they've talked since.

It's been exactly five days since that night in the kitchen, and she's kept a distance. And he absolutely, positively knows it's because she knows he's not okay and he won't tell her what's really going on. She could read him like a book.

The longer he thinks about it, ducking through lifers and dead alike, he supposes its best they weren't fully speaking at the moment anyways. She wouldn't be happy to know that he had gone back to Caleb, and she wouldn't be happy to know that the shocks were getting worse, and that each one was hitting him harder than the last, and far too frequently. He felt like he was running out of time all over again, and this time, there was no easy answer.

"My, my, _my!"_

A grandiose voice breaks through his thoughts at the same time a hand clamps down on his shoulder. "Luke! I never thought I'd see your face again, at least, not after that stunt you and your boys pulled on me. Leaving me high and dry? Why, I'd never do the same to you now would I?"

Caleb Covington leers down at him through a malevolent grin, but Luke's starting to think that that's just how he looks.

Luke shoves his hand off.

"Our curse broke, right?"

Caleb's grin grows wider. "Ah, straight to the point, I see." He sounds like he wants to say more than he's letting on.

Luke scowls, " _Right?"_ he pushes, letting his question hang in the air. Caleb hums, tapping a finger to his chin.

"Well, come to think of it, there could be something more holding you to the club."

"Like what?" Luke snaps, his shoulders tensing at the thought of _still_ being connected to Caleb and his band of lost souls.

The older man shrugs, "No idea."

He turns to walk away, but Luke grabs him by the arm before he can. "Hey, no," he says to Caleb's glare, his patience already being tested. "No, you tell me how to break this."

"Has the thought crossed your mind that I don't know how to break it?" Caleb growls suddenly, throwing Luke's arm aside. "Just because I give out the stamp, doesn't mean I know the powers behind it."

"You're lying," Luke replies evenly, his voice low. "Tell me how to break it, Covington."

"Or what?" Caleb challenges, his face inches away. "You're not strong enough to be rid of me completely. You need me."

Luke's eyes are full of fire, even as a short thrum of pain ripples through him. It does that too now, big shocks, little shocks, some that throw him to his knees while others allow him to keep standing. It hurts either way.

"I am strong enough. I always have been, that's why I'm standing here right now."

Caleb laughs, braying and obnoxious. There's a different kind of gleam in his eye when he looks down at Luke again, the audience growing restless downstairs with no band to please them. "You're weaker than you realize, Luke," he suggests, lifting a hand up to smooth back his hair. "And now you're just paying the price."

He vanishes from view a second later, reappearing downstairs, leaning down low with a bow to the audience. The lifers cheer and hoot, enthralled, excited, and Caleb relishes in it. Luke watches from the balcony, and Caleb glances up at him and winks.

"Now who's ready for a show to die for?"

The audience goes wild when the band appears behind him, and fire sparks in Luke's chest as a guitar solo kicks off from a new face he didn't see before, taking center stage beside Caleb.

His heart burns as the song continues, and it doesn't stop even as he poofs away.

* * *

He feels the pull of Caleb for the next week.

It distracts him from the simplest things, keeps him from the band and Julie. Everyone knows there's something going on with him, and the boys know he poofed away somewhere that day, because they caught him on the way back, clutching at his chest as he had appeared back in the garage. He pushes on, insists there's nothing wrong with him, and doesn't let any of them get too close, in fear of flickering out and never coming back.

They have a concert tonight.

Julie keeps looking over at him, and if he catches Reggie and Alex sharing looks with each other one more time, he's definitely going to lose it.

"Hey," Julie says, grabbing him by the sleeve and pulling him out of earshot from the guys to a secluded corner of the garage, "are you ready for tonight?"

"Definitely," he tells her, and he's already waiting for the inevitable worry she's sure to speak on.

It's horrible, keeping this from her, but he doesn't want to have any of them worry about him, and maybe it is better this way, because if he poofs out of existence from this pain, then maybe they won't miss him as much.

"And you're sure you're feeling okay?"

He nods, grabbing her hand and squeezing it softly. "Of course. I've never been better."

She looks relieved and even goes as far as squeezing his hand back. "Okay. Okay, awesome, great. Um," she trails off in thought, biting her bottom lip. "I have to go, but I'll see you guys in a few minutes, yeah?"

"Yeah," he agrees, and when she reaches up to cup his cheek, it causes him to freeze. The corner feels _too_ secluded all of a sudden, and heat rushes to his cheeks. Her eyes are mesmerizing. Can ghosts even blush?

"Luke, you would tell me if something was going on, right?"

He feels horrible. His chest aches. His heart drops. He doesn't want to lie to her anymore. His mouth is dry when he whispers, "Don't worry." Her thumb brushes the curve of his cheek, tracing it down to his chin.

"Okay," she whispers, and then she's letting go.

He watches her as she high-fives both the boys before leaving the garage, and soon enough Reggie and Alex are getting ready to poof and he's still standing in the corner, torn between going right to Julie and spilling everything, or keeping it all inside.

He jumps when Alex's hand clamps over his shoulder. "Ready to go?"

Reggie is beside him and Luke gathers his bearings, nodding as he goes to get his guitar. He hears the guys poof, and slings his guitar over his shoulder, intending to follow.

The jolt knocks him to the floor. His guitar catches the brunt of his fall. He can tell he flickers by the way his hand nearly goes through the floor as he tries to hold himself up, and then things get weird.

He can hear Caleb in his head, can see the club before his eyes, can feel his feet wanting to drag him towards a performance he doesn't want to perform. He can hear the music, feel the beat, feel his connection with Julie start to sever, and he cries out, fire climbing up his throat.

_I'm chasing down a thrill, and lookin' fit to kill_

_So listen to the words a wise man said..._

"Luke!"

The club is full of colors, and the spotlights are far too bright. He can see Reggie in his suit dancing next to him, feel the tight collar of his own. He's hot and he's cold and he's not _free_ and Caleb is grinning wide and Julie isn't —

_You got nothing to lose, boys..._

_Lose,_

_Lose,_

_Lose,_

_You got nothing to—_

Alex stands up from the drums and grabs him by the shoulders, and when Luke breathes he's back on the floor of the garage, and Alex is with him.

He can still hear Caleb's song in the back of his head, but it's not as loud anymore, and he can actually think through it. His chest isn't right though, his lungs feel clogged, and his heart feels like it's missing something, same as it had that night when Caleb had tried to break them apart for good. It wasn't until she brought him back that he felt right again, and even if Alex brought him back this time, it wasn't enough.

"It's Caleb, isn't it?" Alex asks, his hand steady on Luke's back.

He's still on the ground, and his guitar is still heavy around his neck, weighing him down. If he looks close enough, he can see a scratch on the neck of it, new and shining. He wonders if that's how the inside of him looks right now, scratched and damaged and unrepairable because he can't feel Julie as much as he usually does. Did the song and the visions mean he was a second away from being stuck in the club forever?

"I don't know," Luke wheezes, holding his shirt tight as if that will keep his heart in place, but he's not even supposed to have a heart so why can he feel it, and why does everything _hurt?_

"You have to tell Julie."

"No, no I can't. She can't know, Alex, she can't."

Alex sighs, slipping his hands under Luke's arms to help him climb back to his feet. "Why not, dude? You're flickering and getting weaker and don't think that we all don't know something's up, because we do."

Luke is breathing heavy as Alex helps him over to the couch, collapsing back against it, completely drained. "Because I can't worry her like that again. I can't let her come in and save me when I should be able to save myself." He pauses, exhaling slowly. "Alex...without her I would still be stuck there. I wasn't strong enough to save myself, and I can't forget about it, and I can't stop feeling guilty about it."

"There's nothing to feel guilty about," Alex reasons, reaching out and punching him in the shoulder. "We're _ghosts_ man, I mean, Caleb knew that, and he knew we didn't have a clue about what we were doing or what to do, and he preyed on that. Julie was our saving grace, literally, and you can't blame yourself for things that were out of our control."

Luke shakes his head, frowning. "No, that's my point, it _was_ in our control, and I—"

He cuts himself off and looks down to the ground, his hands shaking from where they rest on his knees. His entire body feels out of alignment now, and he doesn't know how to fix it, what to do, and Julie and Reggie are waiting for them and —

"They're waiting for us," he tells Alex, softly, his voice laced with fatigue.

"I know." Alex waits, and when Luke doesn't move to speak again, he sighs and clasps his own hands together. "What are you going to do?"

"I'm going to fight it. Break it off completely."

"How?"

Luke breathes in, and then out. He has a lot of things he needs to figure out, but one thing he knows for sure is that he's not leaving his boys, or Julie, or this world he has so much left to learn about. He will fight this, figure it out, and be stronger by doing so. He has to.

"Let's go," he whispers to Alex, "we gotta go."

Alex goes to say more but Luke poofs away before he can, so he has no choice but to follow. When Julie and Reggie ask them what took them so long, they share a look and Luke lifts his beanie off his head, with a claim that he forgot it.

Julie watches Luke throughout their time on the stage, and notices he winces everytime he goes to move his fingers to a new chord.

She doesn't let him out of her sight the rest of the night.

* * *

She corners him against the wall in her bedroom the next night.

It's not as fun as it sounds.

He had poofed into her bedroom to ask if she wanted to work on a new song he had been thinking about, and the next thing he knew, she had him trapped against the wall and her, her eyes flaring.

"Tell me what's going on with you," she demands, but it doesn't fully work with her, because her voice has a waver and her words are still edged by something gentle.

"There's nothing going on with me," he denies weakly, and it's enough for her to know that there is something wrong. And, really, the timing couldn't be worse for the next jolt, and of course this one is going to knock him to the floor too, because he phases right through Julie and sees Caleb and the club far too clearly, far too loud.

It's like he's back there again, like he never left and _this_ is all he will ever see again.

Caleb's smirking face and his long suit and feel his own even tighter clothes, restraining, pushing, tight. He's being held down, he's growing restless, he's lost without Julie, and he thinks he's talking but he could also be screaming but he doesn't know up from down or left from right or remember the feel of her hand clutched in his or the boys' arms slung around his shoulders or —

She kisses him when he can't hear her words of comfort and encouragement at all, and it's like fireworks exploding in his chest.

He's never felt so alive as her lips press against his, as her hands come up to cup his cheeks and brush against his lashes, and he falls back into his own body with a startling amount of force. She pulls back when he breathes, and something inside of him clicks into place.

He meets her eyes after a few moments of just breathing, in and out, steady, steady, steady, and then laughs loud enough to make her jump. "It's gone," he says breathlessly, his chest feeling lighter than it has since that first night, and he laughs again. "Oh my God."

"Don't use the Lord's name in vain," she whispers, and he laughs again, followed by her own round of laughter as he reaches out to touch the side of her face.

He's the one to kiss her this time, his fingers warm from where they rest, and she kisses back without a second thought. This kiss is longer, but still just as soft as the first one, and Luke feels like he might flicker out of pure joy. They pull away slightly, and his hand drops from her face.

For once he's glad the guys aren't around, because they would have a field day with this, them on their knees on the floor, kissing, not once but twice, and even if he swore to them that it didn't start out that way, they wouldn't believe it.

They're both smiling when he presses his forehead against hers.

"I've been wanting to do that for a while," he whispers to her when the silence drags on for a minute too long, and she chuckles, her hand sliding into his.

"I didn't think I'd ever get to," she reveals, her voice quiet.

He rubs the back of her hand with his thumb, and keeps doing so even as she giggles and leans in to give him a quick kiss on the cheek before standing up. "Up we go," she says as she tugs him to his feet with her, and then she pulls him over to her bed, still very much unmade.

"You could clean up around here," he jokes as she easily pulls him into bed, her head coming to a rest on his chest as she settles against him, and he leans against her bedframe.

"You haven't cleaned your room in twenty-five years," she responds with a teasing eye roll and he chuckles.

"Touché."

He wraps an arm around her, and her hand comes to stop beside her head, her fingers pulling at his shirt. "I feel whole again," he mumbles a few seconds later, feeling the words bubble out of him before he can stop them.

She moves closer to him. "Good," she whispers tilting her head back so that she can look up at him, "because I don't want any broken promises."

"I promise I won't," he says with a smile, and she can't help the laugh that bursts out of her as she shoves him, muttering under her breath something he can't hear. She scoots closer, and he leaves a kiss in her hair, and he knows their story is far from over.

If anything, it's just beginning.


End file.
